State v. Wood, 35,057

Defendant Gregory A. Wood pled no contest to trafficking methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and possession of marijuana/synthetic cannabinoids and received an enhanced sentence.
The State used two prior felony convictions (one for auto burglary) to enhance Defendant’s sentence.
On appeal Defendant sought to add an ineffective-assistance claim (trial counsel failed to put evidence on the record to contest the prior conviction) via a motion to amend the docketing statement.
Defendant separately challenged the application of the auto-burglary prior (arguing factual similarity to Muqqddin) and argued the record was insufficiently developed below.
Defendant moved to withdraw his plea, alleging he believed prior counsel made a secret plea agreement capping exposure at four years; the district court rejected his credibility claim.
The Court of Appeals issued a calendar notice proposing to affirm and ultimately denied the motion to amend and affirmed the judgment and sentence, directing ineffective-assistance and record-development claims to habeas/collateral proceedings.

Issue	State's Argument	Wood's Argument	Held
Motion to amend docketing statement to add IAC claim	Deny amendment because the record lacks evidence to support the claim	Counsel was ineffective for failing to place evidence on the record to contest a prior conviction	Denied — claim not viable on direct appeal; should be raised in habeas/collateral proceeding
Sufficiency of evidence to use prior auto-burglary conviction for enhancement	State made a prima facie showing of identity, conviction, and timing shifting burden to Defendant	Prior conviction was factually similar to Muqqddin and should not qualify	Affirmed — Defendant failed to present evidence below; must develop record in habeas proceeding
Standard/burden for proving prior convictions at enhancement stage	Proof by preponderance; once State shows identity/conviction/timing burden shifts to defendant to prove invalidity	Argued insufficiency under applicable standards (Muqqddin)	Court applied Simmons standard and found State made prima facie case; defendant did not rebut with evidence
Motion to withdraw plea based on alleged secret deal by prior counsel	Credibility rests with district court; no basis to overturn	Claimed belief that counsel had a secret agreement capping sentence at four years	Denied — district court discredited claim; appellate court defers to trial court credibility finding

State v. Simmons, 140 N.M. 311, 142 P.3d 899 (N.M. 2006) (preponderance standard for proving prior convictions and burden-shifting rules)
Office of Pub. Defender ex rel. Muqqddin v. State, 285 P.3d 622 (N.M. 2012) (reversal on sufficiency grounds for certain predicate facts)
State v. Martin, 686 P.2d 937 (N.M. 1984) (matters not of record are not reviewable on direct appeal)
State v. Baca, 950 P.2d 776 (N.M. 1997) (preference for habeas corpus over remand when record is insufficient for IAC remand)
State v. Franklin, 428 P.2d 982 (N.M. 1967) (standards for withdrawing pleas)
State v. Boyer, 712 P.2d 1 (N.M. Ct. App. 1985) (withdrawing guilty pleas jurisprudence)
State v. Cordova, 331 P.3d 980 (N.M. Ct. App. 2014) (argument of counsel is not evidence)